Democratic socialism v. socialism

Good Facebook meme and commentary from Durga Adriane. Something to think about.

"The term 'democratic socialism' is what the progressive contingent of the Democrats have used to attempt to distinguish themselves from regular Democrats; viz Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, $15 minimum wage, support for labor unions, etc. Bernie Sanders refers to himself as a democratic socialist as does AOC and others. The reason this distinction matters is because 'democratic socialism' is fundamentally a means of attempting to paper over the predatory capitalist system by tweaking it around the edges. Make it more humane through nicer domestic policy, but do nothing to expropriate or redistribute the power from the oligarchic hegemony pulling the strings.

 

"The other problem with 'democratic socialists' is that they are perfectly fine with the US empire's endless grind for global domination. They do nothing to challenge our constant regime-change wars. They appropriate billions for Israel in every congressional session. In short, they're the Public Relations arm of the Democrats and don't do much other than to re-brand the Democrats for the younger generations by signaling policies that are basic to every other developed nation in the world and many less-developed ones.

 

"It's a two-part grift: Progressives (aka democratic socialists) pretending to be the opposition to the Democrats when in fact they are sheepherding left-leaning voters back into the party and quelling authentic revolutionary sentiment with notions of being 'reasonable and strategic.' And the second part of the grift is selling the lie that the Democrats are an opposition party to the Republicans.

 

"Just like clockwork, in every election by the time progressive voters' 'democratic socialist' progressive candidates have been summarily ousted in the primaries, those same people that claimed to be demanding basic humanity from their government loyally vote for the Democratic party and its operatives, citing myths of 'harm reduction' and 'lesser evilism' to justify it. They talk big about 'organizing at the grassroots' and then never do. Whatever meaningless 'protests' they have amount to little more than the giant pussy hat tantrum of 2016. They do nothing to disrupt the system or threaten the power structure. And when the few progressives they DO manage to get elected sell out to the party machine, voters stop at nothing to make excuses for them with versions of "at least it's better than the other guy. 

It's all basically a charade-- as is all 'activism' led from the liberal intelligentsia, the PMC, and the upper middle class.

 

"Conversely, socialism is anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-oligarchic. There are no leftist Democrats. Progressive Dems are what I described above. Leftism starts at socialism, basically. Socialists don't compromise with Democrats. Or vote for them. Socialism means worker control over the means of the production and its economic returns. Embracing a multi-polar economic order with room for more than one power. Ending the exploitation of the global south. And ending imperialism. Not. Negotiable."